d  s  o  Na^M  an  hattan  Tunnels 

(WILLIAM  Mc  ADOO  PRESIDENT  ) 
UNITING    NEW  YORK  AND  NEW  JERSEY 

IN  PICTURE  AND  STORY! 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


: .  -  . 
AN 


THE 

HUDSON  &  MANHATTAN 
TUNNELS 

(WM.  G.  McADOO,  Pres.) 

Uniting  New  York  and   New  Jersey 

IN  PICTURE   AND  STORY 

Copyright,  1908,  by 
THE  AMERICAN  PHOTOGRAPH  COMPANY,  Publishers 
Tribune    Building    New  York 


This  is  the  Hudson  Terminal  Buildings,  wherein  are  located  the  stations  of  the  south  twin  tubes 


THE  HUDSON  AND  MANHATTAN  TUNNELS 

HE  STORY  OF  TUXXELS  such  as  the  McAdoo  Tunnels,  passing  under  the 
Hudson  river  between  Xew  York  and  New  Jersey,  is  not  without  interest, 
even  to  the  lay  mind,  which  cares  nothing  for  the  whys  or  wherefores  of 
things  engineering  so  long  as  they  cost  them  not  a  moment  of  worry,  nor 
a  penny  in  treasure,  but  afford  the  relief  they  have  so  often  entertained 
in  their  rosiest  of  dreams. 

A  Universal  Need.  Xovel  experiences  are  constantly  sought,  new 
emotions  ever  desired.  The  "hindrances  of  surface  transportation  and 
traffic  hold  no  fascination  or  magnetism  for  the  romantic  soul;  the  delays  and  uncertain- 
ties of  surface  congestion  present  no  allurements  to  the  busy  traveler.  And  so  it  came 
to  pass  that  tunnels  became  a  necessity;  almost  a  rage  with  busy  workers  in  the  hives 
of  industry  in  the  great  American  metropolis,  and  now  have  become  necessary  channels 
of  communication  beneath  rivers,  the  surface  of  which  is  always  congested  with  an  ever- 


increasing  shipping,  and  often  bound  hard  and  fast  in  ice  or  the  dangerous  and  annoying 
embrace  of  heavy  fogs. 

But  to  revert  to  our  story:  This  tunnel — or  strictly  speaking,  these  tunnels  (for 
there  are  four  of  them,  two  extending  under  the  river  from  ^.ortlandt  street,  New  York 
to  Jersey  City,  thence  connecting  with  the  terminals  of  the  Pennsylvania,  Erie  and 
Delaware,  Lackawanna  and  Western  railroads,  from  whence  there  extend  under  the 
Hudson  two  other  tunnels  to  Christopher  street,  New  York,  thence  to  and  up ,  Sixth 
avenue  as  far  as  Thirty-third  street) — will  for  years,  if  not  for  ages,  stand  as 
the  greatest  engineering  feat  undertaken  by  man. 

Haskins'  1874  Tunnel.  The  idea  of  tunneling  under  the  Hudson  river  had  its  con- 
ception in  the  fertile  brain  of  Colonel  D.  C.  Haskins,  an  English  civil  engineer  of  consid- 
erable note  and  ability,  in  1874,  and  he  set  about  organizing  a  company  to  finance  and 
bore  the  tunnel,  and  after  arduous  labor,  and  much  persuasion  succeeded  in  interesting 
about  two  millions  of  dollars  of  New  York  capital  in  his  undertaking.  He  began  work 
in  1878,  and  had  constructed  one  thousand,  two  hundred  fifty  feet  of  tunnel,  when  a 
cave-in  of  the  roof  sheathing,  in  1880,  drowned  twenty-one  men  in  the  air-locks.  The 


And  await  the  arrival  of  our  train  which  is  to  whirl  us  through  the  tunnel. 


money  having  been  all  expended,  and  further  financial  aid  being  lacking,  the  company 
was  forced  to  abandon  the  enterprise  in  that  year. 

A  New  Company.  Colonel  Haskins,  having  failed  in  his  attempt  to  interest  addi- 
tional American  capital  in  his  enterprise  went  to  England,  where  he  succeeded  in 
obtaining  about  two  millions  of  dollars  of  English  money,  and  a  new  company  was 
organized  to  take  over  the  franchise,  and  other  assets  of  the  old  company.  Colonel 
Haskins  in  resuming  his  self-imposed  task  of  uniting  New  Jersey  and  Manhattan  Island 
by  an  sub-aqueous  route  had  in  mind  the  establishment  of  a  mammoth  terminal  station 
on  a  site  in  close  proximity  to  Washington  Square,  where  railroad  trains  from  every 
section  of  the  country  could  discharge  passengers  and  freight. 

In  1890  the  new  company,  after  pushing  the  tube  one  thousand,  eight  hundred  feet 
further  along  toward  New  York,  fell  into  bankruptcy,  and  work  was  again  stopped. 
Colonel  Haskins,  unable  to  secure  more  capital  for  his  enterprise,  abandoned  the  project, 
and  the  unfinished  work  lay  all  but  forgotten  under  the  waters  of  the  majestic  Hudson. 

A  New  Man.  In  1901  there  came  from  Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  to  New  York,  a  young 
man  who  had  been  born  in  Marietta,  Ga.,  thirty-eight  years  before.    He  was  unknown 


Here  we  see  the  train  at  its  terminal;  on  the  right  we  enter,  on  the  left  we  leave. 


to  fame,  to  finance,  to  engineering,  and  he,  at  that  time,  had  no  intention  of  abandoning 
his  career  in  the  practise  of  the  law.  But  one  day  Willliam  Gibbs  McAdoo  being  called 
to  Hoboken  on  business,  was  much  vexed  by  the  delays  occasioned  by  a  river  full  of 
craft  of  every  conceivable  description  trying  to  feel  their  way  through  an  almost  impene- 
trable sea  of  fog.  Thus  delayed  his  thoughts  were  turned  to  the  necessity  for  some 
more  safe  and  rapid  method  for  transacting  business  across  the  Hudson.  So  in  his 
moments  of  leisure — perhaps  at  first  from  a  mere  sense  of  curiosity — he  began  to  investi- 
gate the  now  abandoned  tunnel.  He  found  that  its  franchise  had  yet  about  twenty-five 
years  to  run,  and  that  both  franchise  and  uncompleted  tunnel  could  be  bought  for  a 
song.  The  more  he  considered  the  project,  the  more  convinced  he  became  that  the 
tunnel  was  an  absolute  necessity;  that  it  should  be  completed;  that  the  public  demanded 
just  such  relief  as  it  and  it  alone  could  afford.  He  also  realized  that  it  was  a  stupendous 
engineering  feat  the  difficulties  of  which  could  only  be  surmounted  by  modern  methods. 
In  a  casual  way  from  time  to  time,  he  consulted  with  the  master  minds  of  the  engineer- 
ing world,  and  found  that,  if  the  necessary  capital  was  supplied,  the  tunnel  could  be 
completed.    Then  this  master  mind  set  about  to  interest  capital  to  complete  the  tube, 


Our  train  having  arrived  at  the  platform,  let  us  now  go  aboard 


but  the  capital  he  sought  was  not  to  be  of  the  "high-finance"  kind.  He  believed  his 
enterprise  to  be  a  legitimate,  conservative  business  proposition,  and  therefore  endeav- 
ored to  interest  only  conservative  capitalists  and  investors  in  the  undertaking.  He 
unfolded  his  plans  and  needs  to  Pliny  Fisk  and  William  M.  Barnum,  of  the  financial 
firm  of  Harvey  Fisk  &  Sons  in  such  a  'straightforward  and  business-like  way  as  to  win 
the  confidence  and  hearty  cooperation  of  these  masters  of  conservative  banking,  among 
whose  clients  are  numbered  many  of  the  country's  richest  conservative  investors.  The 
young  lawyer  convinced  the  bankers  of  the  possibility,  the  urgent  necessity,  and  the 
profitable  income  to  be  derived  from  an  investment  in  these  tunnels  and  they  undertook 
the  financing  of  the  enterprise. 

The  New  York  and  Jersey  Tunnel  Company  was  organized  in  February,  1902,  to 
take  over  the  title,  franchise  and  other  interests  in  and  to  the  long-defunct  preceding 
companies.  The  new  company  purchased  new  and  modern  machinery  and  equipment, 
secured  the  services  of  the  best  engineering  talent  the  country  could  afford,  and  quietly 
but  honestly  set  to  work  to  finish  the  tunnel  under  the  Hudson  from  Hoboken  to  Morton 
street,  New  York. 


The  tunnel,  now  known  as  the  south  tube,  was  completed  in  1905,  and  the  north 
tube,  which  parallels  it,  at  a  distance  of  about  thirty  feet,  was  put  through.  And  these 
tunnels,  that  we  are  about  to  inspect,  were  opened  to  the  public  on  Tuesday,  February 
25,  1908,  by  President  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Governor  Charles  E.  Hughes  of  New  York, 
and  Governor  John  Franklin  Fort  of  New  Jersey. 

Hudson  and  Manhattan  Railroad  Company.  The  New  York  and  Jersey  Tunnel  Com- 
pany was  organized  and  financed  merely  to  complete  the  old  tunnel,  so  for  the  construc- 
tion of  additional  tunnels  and  terminals,  a  new  company  had  to  be  formed,  and  that 
company  was  the  Hudson  and  Manhattan  Railroad  Company,  which  was  organized  in 
May,  1904,  with  William  G.  McAdoo,  as  president. 

Where  the  Tunnels  Lead.  These  "McAdoo"  tunnels  enter  Manhattan  Island  at  the 
foot  of  Christopher  street,  where  they  connect  with  a  subway  constructed  and  operated 
by  the  Hudson  and  Manhattan  company,  extending  up  Christopher  street  to  Sixth 
avenue,  thence  north  to  Thirty-third  street,  where  connection  will  be  effected  with  the 
mammoth  terminal  station  now  in  course  of  construction  for  the  Pennsylvania  and 
Long  Island  system.    There  are  way  stations  on  Christopher  street  at  Ninth  and  Sixth 


And  from  the  windows  we  may  view  the  crossover,  or  mouth  of  the  two  tunnels. 


avenues,  allowing  close  connection  with  the  west-side  elevated  systems  of  the  metropolis. 
The  way  stations  on  Sixth  avenue  are  located  at.  Eighth,  Fourteenth,  Nineteenth, 
Twenty-third,  Twenty-eighth  and  Thirty-third  streets. 

But  these  tunnels  alone  are  not  all  that  this  remarkable  man  has  accomplished  for 
the  people  of  the  American  metropolis,  during  his  seven  years  residence  in  the  City  of 
New  York. 

Hudson  Terminal  Buildings.  There  has  been  reared,  also,  two  twenty-two  story 
buildings,  known  as  the  Hudson  Terminal  Buildings  which  are  of  fire-proof  twin  con- 
struction, and  cover  nearly  two  city  blocks  at  Cortlandt,  Dey,  Fulton  and  Church  streets. 
Here  are  located  the  terminals  of  the  two  great  southern  twin  tubes  to  Jersey  City,  and 
it  will  be  but  a  short  time  when  these  tubes  will  be  opened  to  the  public. 

This  building  goes  on  record  as  the  largest  office  structure  in  existence,  containing 
as  it  does,  in  its  twenty-two  stories,  eighteen  and  a  half  millions  of  square  feet  (or 
more  than  twenty-nine  acres)  of  floor  space,  affording  comfortable  accommodations  for 
over  ten  thousand  office  tenants.  These  twin  buildings  are  respectively  officially  desig- 
nated as  the  Fulton,  and  the  Cortlandt,  and  are  joined  by  an  iron  bridge  across  Dey 
street,  affording  easy  communication  between  the  two  mammoth  structures. 


As  we  onward  speed,  we  can  view  the  construction  of  the  tube,  and  observe  on  the  left  a  splicing  chamber. 


About  thirty  feet  below  the  street  level  are  located  the  loop  and  station  platforms 
where  one  thousand  persons  a  minute,  or  five  hundred  thousand  people  a  day  can  easily 
be  handled.  Just  above  this  floor  is  located  what  is  known  as  the  "concourse,"  where 
a  restaurant,  lunch  counter,  flower  booth,  telephone  booth,  telegraph  stand,  newspaper 
kiosk,  bootblack  stand,  and  other  modern  railroad  conveniences  will  be  established. 

Fifty-two  elevators  afford  prompt,  comfortable,  safe,  and  easy  access  to  the  various 
floors,  already  rented  as  offices  to  some  of  the  largest  of  our  American  corpora- 
tions, among  which  may  be  mentioned  the  American  Steel  Company,  while  the  Federal 
Government  has  engaged  about  an  acre  of  space  on  the  first  and  second  floors  for  the 
New  York  Post  Office  as  a  receiving  and  forwarding  station. 

Each  building  will  also  have  a  dining  club,  on  the  roof,  that  in  the  Cortlandt  build- 
ing being  known  as  the  Railroad  Club,  while  that  in  the  Fulton  building  will  be  desig- 
nated as  the  Machinery  club. 

The  Construction.  The  story  of  the  construction  of  the  tunnels  is  a  long  one;  too 
long,  indeed,  to  be  more  than  touched  upon  in  the  present  booklet.  Here  the  story  is, 
however,  graphically  told  in  pictures  which  carry  you  along  through  the  various  stages 


Here  we  pass  the  first  signal  station,   and  speed  merrily  onward 


of  construction;  you  are  to  make  a  picture  trip  through  the  tube;  and  now,  as  briefly 
as  possible,  the  details  of  the  construction  are  to  be  unfolded  to  you,  without  any  of  the 
professional  verbiage  so  often  used  in  works  such  as  this  one. 

In  the  original  work  upon  this  tunnel,  under  Colonel  Haskins,  compressed  air  was 
first  used  in  construction,  when  its  aid  and  usefulness  in  subterranean  construction  was 
clearly  proven.  Haskins  even  used  compressed  air  as  a  means  of  removing  from  the 
tunnel  the  sand  and  silt,  first  having  mixed  them  with  water.  Since  those  days,  how- 
ever, the  use  of  compressed  air  in  sub-aquatic  engineering  has  made  great,  important 
and  rapid  strides  toward  the  perfect  system  used  by  the  Hudson  and  Manhattan  com- 
pany in  the  construction  of  these  tubes. 

Pilot  Tunneling.  From  the  time  when  Haskins  drove  a  pilot  tunnel  (six  feet  six 
inches  in  diameter,  thirty  or  forty  feet  in  advance  of  the  main  works,  enabling  him  to 
lay  stronger  foundations  for  the  roofing  irons  and  brick  and  masonry  of  which  he  was 
constructing  his  tunnel),  to  the  introduction  of  the  high-pressure  air  chambered  shield 
used  by  the  Hudson  company,  there  has  been  a  wonderful  advance  in  engineering  science. 
Behind  this  shield  men  can  labor  without  fear  of  cave-in  as  the  high  air-pressure  in  the 


Toward  the  curve  under  the  mighty  Hudson,  and  we  are  at  our  journey's  end. 


chamber  holds  the  mud,  sand,  and  silt  in  place  until  loosened  and  removed  with  pick, 
shovel  or  dynamite.  The  shield  is  several  inches  larger  than  the  diameter  of  the  com- 
pleted bore,  thus  allowing  room  for  the  placing  of  the  construction  materials.  In  the 
present  tunnels,  these  are  huge  rings  of  steel  securely  cemented  and  bolted  together, 
and  sheathed  with  concrete  either  all  or  a  part  of  the  way  around  the  circle.  The  shield 
is  forced  forward  into  the  soil  by  huge  jack-screws,  and  its  correct  path  is  maintained 
to  the  fraction  of  an  inch  by  careful  mathematical  calculation.  Electricity  was  also 
used  as  a  means  of  both  light  and  power  in  the  construction  work,  greatly  facilitating 
the  speed  and  accurate  completion  of  the  undertaking. 

The  Tubes.  Each  tube  is  fifteen  feet  three  inches  in  diameter,  and  lies  from  sixty 
to  ninety  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  water,  or  from  fifteen  to  thirty  feet  below  the 
bed  of  the  river.  The  total  length  of  the  sub-aqueous  portion  of  the  tube  is  approxit- 
mately  five  thousand  seven  hundred  feet,  or  about  two  and  a  half  miles. 

Under  the  River.  So  brilliantly  lighted  are  the  tunnels  that  one  in  entrancement 
may  look  far  into  the  tube  under  the  mighty  river  on  whose  bosom  float  the  commerce 
of  a  nation;  from  whose  piers  departures  may  be  made  to  almost  every  habitable  portion 


Here  we  look  upon  the  giant  minds  who  have  made  possible  the  tunnel:    McAdoo,  Jacobs,  Davies  and 

associates. 


of  the  globe;  on  whose  troubled  breast  ride  the  largest,  the  grandest,  the  most  expensive 
and  luxurious  floating  palaces  built. 

The  Stations.  The  stations  are  built  on  what  is  known  to  the  engineering  fraternity 
as  the  tangent  form,  which  means  simply  that  the  tracks  in  the  stations  are  perfectly 
parallel  with  the  platforms,  that  there  are  no  curves  where  the  passengers  are  allowed 
to  enter  the  cars,  thus  avoiding  the  dangers  of  the  "wide  step"  so  often  found  in  other 
transit  systems  of  the  great  metropolis. 

There  are  two  platforms  in  each  terminal,  the  arriving  and  departing.  Passengers 
being  given  egress  and  ingress  on  opposite  sides  of  the  cars,  thereby  avoiding  the  station 
delays  heretofore  so  perplexing. 

The  stations  are  designed  with  a  view  to  permanency,  comfort  and  beauty.  They 
afford  ample  facilities,  not  only  for  the  business  of  the  present,  but  for  the  increasing 
traffic  of  the  future. 

Steel  and  Concrete  Throughout.  Steel  and  concrete  alone  enter  into  the  construc- 
tion of  these  subterranean  stations.  Vaulted  arches  rise  on  all  sides,  from  whose  artistic 
and  substantial  sides  gently  glow  the  irridescence  of  the  electric  bulb,  which  casts  over 


Making  ready  to  concrete  the  cloistered  roof  of  a  station. 


the  scene  a  gentle  halo  as  of  early  twilight,  reminding  one  most  forcibly  of  a  treasured 
visit  to  some  sombre  cloister,  or  to  the  vaulted  cellars  of  some  old  mediaeval  castle  on 
the  picturesque  Rhine,  wherein  are  ageing  and  ripening  the  luscious  juices  of  the  grape. 
The  wand  of  the  magician  seems  to  have  left  its  mystic  spell,  the  touch  of  the  artist  its 
harmonizing  beauty,  the  brain  of  the  architect  the  air  of  security  and  stability,  and  the 
moulding  and  stroke  of  the  artisan  its  ever-present  and  masterly  monument  to  Ameri- 
can engineering  enterprise. 

Ventilation.  There  is  always  a  gentle  breeze  here.  The  trains  in  their  passing  too 
and  fro  act  as  giant  pistons  whose  every  movement  changes  the  atmosphere  in  the 
tunnel,  forcing  out  the  foul  air,  and  creating  a  vacuum  in  the  rear  which  draws  in  a 
supply  of  fresh  air  from  the  surface,  thereby  giving  an  absolutely  perfect  ventilation. 
It  is  for  this  sanitation  system  that  the  web-wall  was  built  between  the  tracks  in  the 
subway  portions  of  the  system,  in  contradistinction  to  the  system  in  vogue  in  the  con- 
struction of  other  metropolitan  subways. 

A  Giant  System.  The  McAdoo  system  of  tunnels  and  subways  consists  of  about 
twenty  miles  of  underground  and  under-river  construction  in  the  metropolitan  district, 


Ready  for  the  webbing  of  tangled  iron  rods  which  are  to  form  the  archings. 


and  when  the  system  is  completed,  the  cost  will  reach  nearly,  if  not  quite,  seventy 
millions  of  dollars. 

The  work  has  afforded  employment  to  an  army  of  professional  and  laboring  men, 
as  many  as  eight  thousand  five  hundred  persons  having  been  engaged  at  one  time. 

The  Cars.  The  cars  are  constructed  exclusively  of  steel  and  carborundum,  and  are 
absolutely  fireproof.  The  trains  are  vestibuled  and  the  cars  divided  into  sections; 
entrance  to  and  exit  therefrom  is  obtained  through  sliding  doors  at  both  ends  and  in 
the  center  of  each  car.    These  are  controlled  and  operated  by  compressed  air. 

Signaling.  A  train  is  made  up  of  eight  cars,  forming  a  complete  compressed  air 
system,  automatically  signaling  the  motorman  to  "go  ahead,"  when  every  car  door  in 
the  train  has  been  securely  closed.  No  bell  or  other  form  of  signaling  is  used,  and  while 
any  one  door  in  the  train  is  even  slightly  ajar,  no  signal  to  '  go  ahead"  can  possibly 
reach  the  motor  car. 

The  cars  are  electrically  propelled,  lighted  and  heated,  and  run  under  a  headway 
of  ten  minutes,  completing  the  trip  between  the  Hoboken  terminal  and  Nineteenth 
street,  New  York,  in  about  ten  minutes. 


And  here  ends  our  story  of  the  greatest  engineering  work  ever  attempted,  the  most 
sublime  and  far-reaching  travelling  beneficence  for  mankind. 


A  Closing  Chapter.  In  a  chapter  apart  by  itself,  let  us  pause  to  emblazon  upon  the 
roll  of  honor,  the  names  of  the  master  minds  who  have,  by  their  accomplishments, 
proved  themselves  the  leading  geniuses  of  engineering  endeavor  of  any  age: 

WILLIAM   GIBBS  McADOO 

President,  The  Hudson  and  Manhattan  Railroad  Company 

WALTER   G.  OAKMAN 

President,  The  Hudson  Construction  Company 

CHARLES   N.  JACOBS 

Engiueer-in-Chief 

J.   VIPOND  DAVIES 

Deputy  Fngineer-in-Chief 

PLINY  FISK 

Member.  Harvey  Fisk  &  Sons 

WILLIAM   M.  BARNVM 

Member,  Harvey  Fisk  &  Sons 


Concreting  and  waterproofing  what  Is  to  be  the  ceiling  of  the  station. 


One  of  the  mammoth  caisons  about  to  depart  for  fields  of  useful  engineering  endeavor. 


And  here  a  view  of  the  cutting  or  business  end  of  the  shield,  as  it  breaks  through  into  a  completed  section. 


Agaia  we  return  to  the  chambers  wherein  are  located  the  machinery, 


And  wherein  labor  under  high  air  pressure,  an  army  of  sand  hogs 


Who  send  in  ore  cars,  the  sand,  gravel,  stone  and  other 


Caison.  where  it  is  raised  to  the  surface  to  be  finally  disposed  of. 


This  is  how  the  shield  looks  as  it  breaks  through  into  an  approach. 


It  was  here  tbat  conjunction  was  made  with  the  old,  long-abandoned  attempt  at  tunneling. 


And,  having  arrived  at  the  terminal,  we  see  another  shield  about  to  begin  its  mission  for  the  betterment  of 

transit  facilities  between  two  states. 


A  train  looks  on  the  storage  tracks,  making  ready  to  carry  the  traveler  under  the  majestic  Hudson  to  his 

business  or  pleasure  on  the  further  side. 


